Plaited fabric



Aug. 18, 1942. c, H, 5.50M 2,293,584

PLAITED FABRIC Filed May 6, 1940 INVENTOR ATTORNEYJ.

Patented Aug. 18, 1942 PLAITED FABRIC Charles H. Babboni, West Allis, Wis., assignor to Slocum Straw Works, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application May 6, 1940, Serial No. 333,530

1 Claim.

My invention relates to improvements in plaited fabrics, including plaited ribbons, borders and articles of wearing apparel.

It is my object to provide a ribbon-like strip of fabric plaited obliquely and alternately in opposite directions to produce hill and valley surface contours, and lobed concavo-convex margins, the valleys commencing at points adjacent to one of the margins and progressively increasing in depth toward the opposite margin, said valleys being pitched obliquely to the axis and in opposite directions in successive portions of the strip.

A further object is to provide a plaited ribbonlike strip having the plaits either permanently or temporarily maintained in a loose, open position along the margins by a central line of stitching which allows the marginal portions to be maintained in hill and valley form by thread tension, set up during the plaiting operation.

My invention also contemplates utilizing a spirally coiled elongated strip of said plaited material to produce hat crowns and brims, and other articles of wearing apparel of unique design. Such hats and other articles may have the contiguous margins of a coiled strip, or of a series of strips, overlapped and stitched together either with or without removal of the stitches initially employed to maintain the plaits under tension.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved plaited fabric in incomplete form, some of the contiguous plaited strips being overlapped and stitched together, some of them having the initial stitches removed, one of the strips having an unplaited portion and another portion with the plaits distended.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a hat having its crown and brim composed of a spirally coiled continuous strip of my improved plaited ribbonlike material.

Figure 3 is an edge view of a fragment of my improved plaited strip.

Figure 4 is a sectional view drawn to line 4-4 of Figure 1.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughout the several views.

In the manufacture of my improved plaited strip I preferably employ a piece of braid Ill having transversely extending woof ribs l I. I pass this strip through a shiftable guide, from which it is fed to the milling attachment of an ordinary sewing machine. The guide is shifted transversely of the line of travel through the sewing machine so that the milling attachment forms plaits pitched to the right or left, dependent upon the position of the guide at the time each such plait is formed. Shiftable rufiling guides are in common use. When the guide is in the intermediate position a ruflle is produced which is perpendicular to the line of ribbon travel.

As indicated in the drawing, I prefer to provide the ribbon with a pair of plaits l2 and I3 pitched obliquely in one direction, followed by a single plait l4 pitched in the opposite direction. The ribs ll formed by the woof of the fabric are thereby correspondingly pitched in opposite directions and placed under tension, whereby a hill and valley effect is produced by the oblique concavo-convex folds.

Immediately following the plaiting operation above described, the plaits are secured in position by stitches l5 taken along the center line of the strip, the plaits being fed progressively underneath the presser foot of the sewing machine and across the path of the needle.

The product of this plaiting operation is an elongated strip of material having hill and valley surface contours, pitched in opposite directions, the obliquely pitched valleys starting at intermediate points l8, l8 near the respective margins of the strip and extending with progressively increasing depth to the other margin. I preferably shift the ribbon guide in such a manner as to produce a pair of parallel valleys starting at points l8 and extending across the strip to the other side margin. Each pair is followed by a single hill l9 and an associated valley I8 pitched in the opposite direction. The hills l9 tend to progressively increase in width from one side toward the other due to the oblique position of the strip with reference to the working edge of the ruffler.

To produce the hat shown in Figure 2, I coil a strip spirally, starting at a point 20 in the center of the hat crown, with contiguous marginal portions overlapped and stitched together by a marginal stitch line 22, as indicated in Figures 1 and 2. In accordance with ordinary practice in the manufacture of hats, it is then blocked to the desired shape and the hat band 2|, with or without other trimming, is then applied. The initial retaining stitches l5 may be removed as soon as the contiguous margins have been stitched together. It is not essential to my invention whether said margins are overlapped or whether they are merely stitched together substantially in edge to edge contact.

In the completed hat, the hills and valleys extend generally along radial lines, the convex surfaces of the hills l9 tending to spread at the outer margins and assume an even more marked triangular form than in the fabric shown in Figure 1. This is due to the fact that the outer margin is in a larger circle, concentric to the inner margin. The consequent stretching of the outer margin also tends to eliminate the oppositely pitched oblique trends of the hills and valleys as shown in Figure 1, although the oblique pitch of the woof ribs is even more prominently displayed.

I claim:

CHARLES H. BABBONI. 

